Pfizer Bars Whites From Applying For Prestigious Fellowship

The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer offers a prestigious fellowship that bars whites and Asians from applying. Trumpeted on the company’s website as a "Bold Move" to "create a workplace for all," civil rights lawyers are characterizing it in a different way: as a blatant violation of the law.

"This Pfizer program is so flagrantly illegal I seriously wonder how it passed internal review by its general counsel," said Adam Mortara, one of the country’s top civil rights attorneys.

Pfizer's "Breakthrough Fellowship" offers college students multiple internships, a fully funded master's degree, and several years of employment at the pharmaceutical giant. It also restricts applications to "Black/African American, Latino/Hispanic and Native American" students, the fellowship requirements state.

In a Frequently Asked Questions brochure about the nine-year program, Pfizer asserts that it is an "equal opportunity employer."

[...] The Breakthrough Fellowship is part of a larger push within Pfizer to "embed DEI into our DNA," per the company's 2021 Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) report. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla in 2020 made "equity" one of the company’s four "core values" alongside excellence, courage, and joy. "We don't just talk about the importance of equity," Bourla said at the time. "We put our words into action."